Away In Africa
by yelloellow
Summary: How will Rory cope with an exflame making an entrance into her a life a continent away from the one that she loves? Summary isn't awesome, give it a chance though. R and R.


Something I thought up while one of my friends was writing a KakuSaku. I was bored and waiting for her to finish so I could be the first one to read. Of course it took me forever to write but hopefully this was worth the amount of time. xD

**Pairing-** Why that's a secret timothy. It's a secret I shall take to the grave or at least until the end of this fic.

**Rating- **T for now, you never ever _ever_ know when it comes to me. It might go up. It basically depends on whether I feel as if I am up to writing the dirty. DIRTY.

If the conversation is in italics, it means it's from the past and not one happening in the present. If it's a single word, then you know what that means. Spoon-fed- It means that that word is stressed. Yes siree. I knew I learned something from my English class. 'D

Disclaimer- You know it's not mine. I know it's not mine. Stop rubbing it in. Just. Stop. It. 'kay thanks.

And for those of you who don't know who GG belongs to well, it belongs to Amy and WB mmkay? Or at least I think it still does.

**GUESSWHOGUESSWHOGUESSWHOGUESSWHOGUESSWHOGUESSWHO**

He was a fool.

Correction. He had_ been_ a fool. It was his fault that she was in Africa. He had thought that he would be fine without her for four months.

She had been covering the American presidential campaign from their shared apartment when her boss had asked her to go to Mozambique as the replacement for a colleague on maternity leave. She had refused a job to go over seas when she had first started since the elder Gilmore had gotten pregnant with the third Gilmore-Danes child. Actually, third and fourth. Rory's editor hadn't seemed to want to give Rory another assignment that would lead overseas but he had at last been forced to and she had been elated at the second chance,

He remembered her running around the apartment the night before she was to leave. She had packed and unpacked, each time wondering if what she was taking was too much or too little or if she was forgetting something. In her fretting around, she had always left something that she needed out or packed things that she wouldn't need. He had had to pack her suitcase for her. Yes, her _suitcase_. She was only supposed to take one since she would be traveling through the country and would be sleeping in a different hotel every step of the way. It was more of a piece of carry on luggage. It had to be light since she would be carrying it around and she wasn't exactly the picture of strength. He wouldn't be around to carry it everywhere they went like the time that they had been in Japan together. She would be taking care of things by herself, and for this reason, the carry on had to be small and since something that was small was usually light, it solved duel issues; ease of carriage and in her mind, something cute to take with her. She had bought it as soon as she had accepted the assignment, and she had taken it everywhere for the month before she was to leave to get used to taking it everywhere she went.

"_I didn't buy these. They followed me home. I swear they did. I was at the mall, since I don't have any small pieces of luggage left because someone decided to fill my last carry on bag with a bottle of soda that exploded and ended up killing Mr. Doowr in the process, and the bookstore was right next to the luggage store. I was just browsing through the various books when these ones caught my eye. I hadn't even read them, and you know why I hadn't read them? Because someone decided that reading was not at the top of my list after they got home after a week in Paris. I ended up missing these releases and I almost forgot to return a library book because of you and your libido!"_

She had rushed out in one breath. It still surprised him after three years together at how fast she could talk and how he could understand it. Sometimes even manage to interrupt and stop the flow or chime in.

"_So there I am and I pull myself away from the book store and go into the luggage store, I was short on time. Shock! I know, and I find this bag and it was the perfect one. I buy it and drive it all the way back here and there was so much traffic, I honestly now know why Jess had told me to just take the bus or a cab anytime I wanted to go somewhere, and then when I opened it, I found these books! So being the wonderful person that I am, I decided to give them all a home. Is that such a crime? Is it Tristan? No it isn't. "_

She had recounted the story of how she had come by with so many books without looking him in the eye. He had made a bet with her and he guessed that this had been the opportune moment to buy as many books as possible. He found it quite funny to see that _that_ had been the best cover story she had been able to come up with while still using the thing on wheels. Tristan expected more from his bookish Mary, even if she couldn't hold down her end of a bet. She had looked so guilty when he had caught her holding _Alai _as if it was something to be worshippedIt was had been just one of the many bindings of literature overflowing Dante. She had even named the piece of luggage. Something about how she had been looking through a magazine when she had seen that name and decided that that was a name that would fit the now beloved piece of merchandise.

He usually knew when she bought a new book. She wouldn't stop talking about the plot or would get absorbed into it so much that he would have to con her into a bed and into his arms. On that particular day, he had come back to their apartment to see her sniffing her book; her nose right against the book and the book being lovingly stroked from behind. Rory did it so often that he would walk into the living room and not be the least bit surprised that she was inhaling the fumes of whatever she had just read. She had once tried explaining why she did it but that had just confused him and had maybe even made him fall in love with her even more.

Any book that she bought had to be sniffed, smelled and literally groped before she would read it. All of the books that belonged to her had this smell. He couldn't describe it except for the fact that he always thought of a librarian by day, dancer by night variation of Jennifer Beals when he inhaled one of her books. He had even told her once and that had lead to a _very_ satisfying role play that had been reenacted many times and was still reenacted whenever he could talk her into it. Dirty. God Lorelai had even started to influence him.

So now she was in Africa. Rory had been concerned about how he would cope without her. She had asked him everyday and told him that if he told her to stay, she would. Of course he couldn't do that. This was something that she needed after all the work that she had put into her job. She deserved this assignment. And four months wasn't that long after all. Something like 120 days or 2880 hours or 172800 minutes or 10368000 seconds. Whatever the amount of time, he knew that he'd be able to live with just phone calls, actually the occasional phone call that came at the end of every week, until she got back home.

At least in theory anyways.

He wanted her home with him, in his bed and in his arms. He wanted to smell her papaya and kiwi scented hair and feel her petal smooth skin. Tristan wanted her right next to him and there in the morning to make him feel like he was indeed at home and not at a house. Well apartment. He just needed her by his side or at least in the same city.

And he'd get it all in 3 months, 14 days, seven hours, 38 minutes and 48 seconds. Actually, 3 months, 14 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes and 10 seconds Tristan noticed in satisfaction as he glanced up at the clock. That's what it was like for him whenever he saw a clock. To his colleagues he'd say "noon" or "five to ten", but in his mind, it was constantly a countdown to the moment he'd be able to see her again.

Noticing the time once more, Tristan stood up from his desk and gathered his belongings. Rory had said that she'd call him tonight and he wanted to make sure he got that call. It was important for him to get that call and by Jesus Saint Mary he'd get that phone call and listen to her voice.

He shouted a quick good-bye to Eli, his assistant, and walked out the door, jacket in hand. Tristan had made it to the front entrance on the first floor before he realized that he'd forgotten his briefcase. Groaning he went back to the elevator and pressed the arrow pointing upwards. The elevator always took a long time and he knew he'd be there for a while.

After five minutes, he pressed the arrow again.

It was another five before he realized that it wasn't coming down, and so he pressed it again, hoping against hope that it'd come down so he wouldn't have to take the stairs in order to get to his office on the sixth floor.

Stuck.

The fucking elevator was stuck.

He was going to take the stairs. Something he hadn't had to do since Rory had gotten onto that health kick and then subsequently buying him that pedometer. She had been obsessed with that pedometer and if didn't walk 10 000 steps in one day, she withheld sex for a few days. What was it, 1 day for every 1 000 steps that he had missed?

Huffing, Tristan got to his floor and went into his office. His military school days had done him some good and even though he wasn't as active as he had had to be, he was still in some shape. Or at least in better shape than Rory was in.

He quickly got his briefcase and somehow made it home in twenty minutes. It should have taken him longer but there hadn't been any traffic in his part of New York for once and he had been able to actually see what the curbs of half the streets looked like. Most of them were cracked and some weren't even made properly. Upscale New York his ass.

Loosening his tie, Tristan listened to his messages. He looked at the screen to see the numbers and he saw surprised him. He had one from work, Caddy had set up some meeting and had promised to call him and tell him where the appointment was along with who he was going to have to butter up. There were a couple from his friends who basically told him that there was surprise party happening in a few weeks, and there was one from Lorelai. That wasn't surprising at all.

"_If Rory isn't going to be near an actual phone ninety percent of the time, who am I going to talk too?! This is why you are now my Rory number 2. I shall be able to call you whenever I choose to and you will have to banter with me and indulge with me and become addicted with coffee. Only then will I be able to live without my baby. My beautiful baby that you have corrupted into eating lettuce and gaspingly horrors, broccoli!"_Lorelai had said, punching Tristan's arm.

Tristan talked to Lorelai often and in some ways it helped him not miss Rory so much. Either she called or he called and they could often end up talking for hours on end, most of the time ending with him having to promise her imported Swiss coffee in order to get her to hang up the phone. No, he was surprised because the last message was from Rory.

"Hey Tris! I told you I was going to call you after 7 and it's 5 right now. I know you are still at the office but I called to tell you that I am not going to be able to talk to you for a couple of weeks. Not by phone or through email. I am going to a part of Mozambique that doesn't have anything to hook anything up to and I am not allowed to take anything valuable with me there. So I called to tell you that I love you and, well, that I love you. "

Fuck.

Another two weeks to actually talk to her? What the hell was he going to do for another two weeks without her voice? Tristan mused as he changed into sweats. Stare at her picture and pretend that he was talking to her? Talk to Lorelei even more than he already did? Pop in some of their DVD recordings of their time and watch them interact as well as hear her voice?

Actually, the last one didn't sound that bad. They had plenty of tapes and DVD's of events or moments or whatever of them together. Both Rory and Lorelei loved camcorders, both digital and video, and used them whenever they had the chance. It didn't matter what was happening, if they could record it, they did.

Shaking his head at the chest full of DVD's and video cassettes that they had, Tristan finally picked one and popped it into the VCR. This one was from a day the beach which they had spent with Lorelai, Luke, Eli, Ricky, and William.

He sat back into the sofa with a cup of coffee that he had made while the tape had rewound and noticed that the footage wasn't shaky. Luke must have filmed instead of Lore or Ror.

So he wasn't a fool he noted to his satisfaction

He was simply in love and willing to whatever was best for his Mary.


End file.
